The Cruising Group can often emerge as the backbone of any sailing club, particularly in the winter. Back in the day when the new Howth Yacht Club premises opened in March 1987, fresh concepts were needed to ensure that the large building was well used on a year-round basis. Gary McGuire was the founding-convenor for this then-novel concept (in Howth anyway) of a weekly winter gathering of cruising folk, supported in turn by rallies and cruises-in-company of all lengths in summer.

Today, it continues to thrive, the largest single grouping in the club, and an active user of all aspects of its clubhouse/marina complex. So when you get a request to introduce a speaker to Cruising Group people with this level of enthusiasm and dedication, it merits some thought and more. Certainly this was the case recently when I got the call, from HYCs current convenor Susan Kavanagh and her predecessor Gerry ONeill, to give the word on Limericks lone sailor Pat Lawless.

The son of a world sailor, Pat Lawless of Limerick is part of a remarkably innovative areas unrivalled sailing heritage

He was coming to provide what proved to be a packed house with the full insight to himself, and his familys multi-generational interaction with the sea and particularly its oceans. Almost immediately it was clear that, as everyone already knows a bit - while some know a lot - about Pat, and his involvement with the Golden Globe sailing the Saga 36 Green Rebel, there might be more point on the night to introduce him by giving some attention to his home area and the Limerick sailing scene which shaped his devotion to the oceans.

Pat Lawless solo-sailing his Saga 36 Green Rebel

It was a real light-bulb moment. For the slightest bit of thought suggests that Limerick, combined with the Shannon Estuary below it and Lough Derg above, make up Irelands Number 1 sailing area in terms of significant individual achievement, and in pioneering and innovation, both in sailing itself, and in its organisation.

And this Limerick Roll of Honour is not just history its the here and now. For Id argue that the greatest single achievement in Irish sailing in the 21st Century at both national and international level is still the clear overall victory by Ger ORourke - of Limerick and the Royal Western YC of Ireland at Kilrush in the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race, for this was very much an individual super-success by a notably determined, failure is not an option owner-skipper.

It rounded out his achievement record with his Cookson 50 Chieftain, which was extensively family cruised oceanic and coastal - between bouts of racing which included a class win in the Sydney-Hobart race, and a second overall in the Transatlantic Race.

Limerick, Youre A Lady Ger ORourkes Chieftain approaching the finish line for total victory in the 2007 Fastnet Race

Its all enhanced by knowing that Ger was introduced to sailing in a very Limerick way. He was chatting with Gary McMahon as they and a group of similar free-thinking spirits gently eased themselves into the weekend with a couple of Thursday night pints in one of those very special pubs which are a Limerick speciality. When everyone dutifully headed for home at a responsible hour, Ger asked Gary if hed see him again the following night.

But Gary said not, as hed be taking his boat down the Estuary to her summer berth. So Ger said hed like to have a go at this sailing game, and could he come too? And that was that the Limerick man who so totally dominated the 2007 Fastnet Race was introduced to sailing by the sea-experienced Limerick acquaintance who - four years after Chieftains mighty Fastnet win - was finally to see the launching at Oldcourt above Baltimore of the fully-restored 56ft ketch Ilen of 1926 vintage, and Conor OBrien and Shannon Estuary fame.

The restored trading ketch Ilen in Greenland in July 2019 under Gary Mac Mahons command. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon

But of course, any discussion of the long history of recreational sailing in Ireland will inevitably attribute its origins partly to the fleet of pleasure boats kept by The Maguire Hugh the Hospitable on Lough Erne in the 16th and early 17th Century, and then come on very strongly with the clearly recorded foundation of the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork in 1720, and agree it was Cork that did it.

But it was a Limerick and Shannonside man who brought it to Cork. Murrough OBrien (1614-1673), 1st Earl of Inchiquin, was an OBrien of Dromoland who somehow emerged from a trail of destruction on the winning side during each phase of the Munster wars in the 1640s. But when his luck finally ran out, he went to France and served with such distinction in the French army that after a successful campaign of conquest into Spain, he was made Governor of Catalonia.

Soldier of fortune and misfortune. Limericks Murrough OBrien brought recreational sailing to Cork Harbour in the 1660s

When the run of luck ran out on that too, he threw in his lot with the exiled Court of Englands King Charles II in the Netherlands, where they were passing the time until Cromwell popped his clogs in England with several activities, including the novel Dutch sport of recreational sailing. OBrien took a special fancy to this, and when Charles II was restored in 1660 and returned to London, OBrien re-collared much of the OBrien land in Ireland and went back there, bringing his sailing interest back with him.

But because he still had so many enemies around the Shannon Estuary, he made his base at Rostellan Castle on the eastern side of Cork Harbour, which conveniently enabled him to have the occasional sail for the pure pleasure of it. Yet when he died in 1673, his will stipulated that he was to be buried in St Marys Cathedral, so they got him back there in the Shannonside city whether they wanted him or not.

Yachts of the 1720-founded Water Club on fleet manoeuvres off Cork as painted by Peter Monamy in 1738. Image: RCYC

Meanwhile back in Rostellan his descendants continued sailing with such increasing interest that when the Water Club was established in 1720, the fourth Earl of Inchiquin Murroughs great-grandson was the founding Admiral. And though in the 1800s the Rostellan Inichiquin OBriens returned to Dromoland Castle as the Thomond branch there had run our of heirs, back in Cork the OBriens continued to be prominent in sailing to such an numerous extent that one branch re-spelled their name as OBryen, with the Cork Harbour-based Henry OBryen becoming Irelands most successful racing skipper in the 1860s, his successes including winning the mould-breaking Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour Race in 1860.

But by that time the Shannon Estuary itself had seen some remarkable flourishes of sailing. A regatta at Kilrush in 1828 which drew in boats and skippers from as far south as west Kerry in the form of Daniel OConnnell, The Liberator, from Derrynane, and his Uncle Maurice from Cahirsiveen, arrived to augment the growing locally-based fleet at Kilrush, and from that the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland was formed, a good two years before any sort of club was established at Kingstown in the East Coast.

That said, the Northern Yacht Club on Belfast Lough had been in being since 1820, but by 1838 it had transferred all its focus across channel to the Clyde becoming the wholly Scottish Royal Northern Yacht Club

The Royal Western of Ireland thrived as a moveable feast, with Stations at Kilrush and Tralee. But Kilrush remained the main base, and in 1838 there were eighteen substantial yachts based there, while others were to be found in various estuary anchorages in 1837 the Knight of Glin had taken his south-shore based yacht Rienvella to Galway Bay to contest sailings Galway Plate, and won.

Glin Castle with the Shannon Estuary beyond. In 1837, the Knight of Glin took his yacht Rienvella to Galway Bay and won sailings Galway Plate

But while slowly growing overall prosperity seemed to guarantee a bright future for west coast sailing, the Great Famine of 1845-1848 wiped it out, and just about everything else with it. The pleasure boats were left to rot, or else withdrew to the east coast, and the Royal Western briefly had a life as an east coast club, until the Model Yacht Club emerged from among its few younger members in 1857, and from that emerged the Corinthian-promoting Royal Alfred Yacht Club on Dublin Bay in 1870.

Meanwhile, what was left of the old Royal Western of Ireland was taken over by the buccaneering Scottish entrepreneur John Arnott in Cork to find a new base in Cobh. But even that didnt seem to work, and it was supposedly wound up there in 1870, but many years later it was shown that such was not the case.

Daniel OConnell meanwhile had not lost interest entirely, for before he set out in 1847 for his desperate famine pilgrimage to Rome - from which he did not return alive - he was one of a small group who revived the old Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire as a response to the almost wholly Ascendancy landlord-dominated outlook of the Royal St George YC. That founding meeting took place in Dublin on 4th July 1846, and the choice of American Independence day was no accident.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club, originally founded 1831, was brought back to life on American Independence Day the 4th July in 1846, and its new clubhouse, opened in 1850, is now the worlds oldest intact purpose-designed yacht club

Looking inland from Limerick, recreational sailing had long been a feature of life on the great lakes of the Shannon, and while a predecessor of Lough Ree Yacht Club had existed at Athlone since 1770, in 1835 Lough Derg YC came into being at Dromineer, drawing in sailors from a wide area of Ireland.

The date is of significance, as these days up in Dublin they tend to think of Lough Derg YC as being Royal St George Yacht Club West. But as The George didnt come into being until 1838, it should arguably be more accurately thought of as Lough Derg Yacht Club East.

Squibs in action off Dromineer, where the Lough Derg YC was founded in 1835. Photo: W M Nixon

The next Limerick area breakthrough in sailing came in 1885, with the Americas Cup Challenge by Lt. William Henn RN (Retd) of Paradise House on the north side of the Estuary, along the western shores of the rapidly widening River Fergus as it flows south through and beyond Ennis.

William Henn loved sailing, he loved being at sea, but when he found that the Royal Navy was providing him with very little of either, he resigned in disgust, though always proudly sporting his rank as a Lieutenant.

Galatea, seen here in full racing trim, was the Americas Cup challenger in 1885

Even in Victorian times, the saloon in Galatea was somewhat at variance with full-on racing expectatios

Happily for his interests, hed married a Scottish heiress who shared his love of sailing and living aboard their luxuriously appointed Americas Cup cutter Galatea, which they brought to the Shannon Estuary between sessions of unsuccessful but hugely popular Americas Cup challenging, and extensive Caribbean cruising which made them pioneers in that now-renowned cruising area.

We gave an update on their story here. Its sufficient to say that while the Galatea challenge in 1885 set the sporting and popular tone later emulated by the Royal Ulsters Thomas Lipton in his five AC challenges between 1899 and 1931, one of the reasons Lipton was able to make such good use of his increasing popularity was because, in 1893 and 1895, the Shannon Estuary provided the home base for two more Americas Cup Challenges, but they became embroiled in controversy.

The Earl of Dunraven of Adare in County Limerick, on the River Maigue a few miles upstream of the south shore of the Shannon Estuary, was descended from a shrewd 17th Century County Limerick farmer called Thady Quin. Quin was good at the agricultural business, but he was even better at establishing a dynasty through a family tradition of marrying well, such that by the late 1800s, his direct descendants were living in the enormous new manor house at Adare on a vast acreage, and the current patriarch was Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quinn, the Fourth Earl of Dunraven.

Having exhausted Irelands supply of really useful heiresses, Thady Quins descendants had looked to Wales, and signed on a Miss Wyndham, who came with a very substantial field. It was actually a coal field. In fact, it was about half of the very extensive and extremely valuable coalfield of South Wales.

On the coast beside it was the Wyndhams home place, Dunraven Castle. So though the title of Earl of Dunraven may sound very Irish indeed, it has more basic origins in South Wales, as the Wyndham family had held sway there since 1642. But also with a basis in Wales was a new and enormous income, much of which was poured into expanding and developing the familys Irish estates such that the fourth Earl even used experience acquired in Wales to create a coal mine near Adare at Ballingarry, in which he took a direct personal and technical interest.

The fourth Earl of Dunraven brainy, ambitious, and very very rich

But as it happened, his lively mind and technical expertise caused him to become interested in the Americas Cup, as sailing had become a new and passionate activity for him after being introduced to it at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in what was then Queenstown, and pursuing it further with his friend John Jameson, the whiskey magnate of the Royal St George YC on Dublin Bay.

Being Dunraven, his approach was very technically-based and success-oriented. After extensive research, he decided the Scottish designer G L Watson was the man to create his very advanced new 117ft challenging cutter, to be built on the Clyde by Hendersons. The name was to be Valkyrie II, for of course the Earl was a Wagner fan, and when the contract was signed and the building shed being prepared, she was the only big cutter to Watsons new and brilliant ideas to be under construction.

But when the sporting Price of Wales got to hear of this, he decided it was his duty to provide Valkyrie II with a near-sister to be a training partner before Dunravens boat made her way to America, sailing across the Atlantic as AC challengers were then required to do. So the Prince sent to Portmarnock to his friend Willie Jameson to be the Royal Sailing Master and what wed now call Project manager, and the wonderful yacht that became Britannia was soon under construction beside the very similar Valkyrie II.

Valkyrie (left) in action in the Americas Cup. Although she was designed before the royal cutter Britannia, the new and very fast hull type from GL Watson became known as The Britannia Ideal

Thus although Dunraven was a talented man with much good fortune, when things went pear-shaped for him, they did so big time. Nowadays, the near-perfection of the Britannia Ideal at the time of her construction set a gold standard for yacht design for decades. And because the Prince of Wales was involved, this is the way it is remembered. Yet if life was at all fair, it would be remembered as the Valkyrie Ideal. But fate has decreed that all the two Watson-designed Valkyries of 1893 and 1895 are remembered for is international acrimony, and a sinking incident.

Dunravens excess of enthusiasm and competitive zeal were his undoing in his 1893 Americas Cup challenge, and even more so in his contentious 1895 challenge. He was making them at a time when the Americans were seriously flexing their international sporting and national pride muscles, and if anyone became responsible for losing the 1851-won Americas Cup, he would be given a bottle of Bourbon and a loaded revolver, and left alone to contemplate his fate.

Thus everything conspired against Dunravens two wonderful Watson-designed boats, and when he made a real fuss abut the many spectator steamships crowding Valkyrie III during light weather racing in 1895, it ended with such acrimony that he received the unprecedented snub of being expelled from his Honorary Membership of the New York Yacht Club.

In his massive and definitive history of the Americas Cup, the late Bob Fisher felt that Dunraven had been poorly treated, and in private conversation he was much more firmly of this opinion. But we neednt waste too much sympathy on this sailing son of Shannonside. He soon bounced back with extensive cruising under sail. And he developed numerous technical projects, many of them of a maritime nature, while his Americas Cup challenges are now perhaps best seen as ensuring that in the half Century after America first won the cup, Shannon Estuary-based owners made one third of the nine challenge.

More surprisingly in life afterwards, Dunraven proved adept at high politics. He was a popular and effective co-Chair of the successful Land Commission of 1903, which transformed for the better the nature and structure of Irish country and farming life. Yet he was his own man. When the Great War ended in 1918, he took the enormous profits from his Welsh coal-mining interests and invested a substantial part of the sum in wait for this the design, development and construction of a 500-ton diesel-powered yacht, the largest built at that time, and a fine vessel without anything coal-fired throughout the length and breadth of her.

One of Dunravens many active interests was west Kerry, with Derrynanes natural harbour where he sailed with the ghost of Daniel OConnell, and the eternally fascinating Skellig rocks miniature sea mountains dominating the horizon.

He liked the place so much that he built a holiday cottage there. It really is little more than a cottage, just big enough for small family groups. It was a shrewd move of which his ancestor Thady Quin would have approved, for had he built a substantial holiday home just above the Derrynane beach, his summers would have been over-run by uninvited guests imposing on the Dunraven noblesse oblige.

The place where many sailors histories interacted Derrynanes natural harbour in West Kerry. Photo: W M Nixon

As it is, big cheeses visiting that sublime area were hosted by the new Parknasilla Hotel at Sneem, and when they were sufficiently interesting, Dunraven would extend an invitation to sail out to the Skelligs. Thus Bernard Shaw in the midst of writing St Joan in the middle of a supposed holiday at Parknasilla - was taken to Skellig Michael by the eccentric Earl, and it was worth everyones efforts, as the effect of that extroaordinary place produced some short but very impressive Shavian prose.

Meanwhile, another summer presence at Derrynane was Dunravens near-neighbours from Cahirmoyle at Ardagh, the OBriens of the family of the 1848 Young Ireland activist William Smith OBrien. While the countryside around their fancy Italianate house of Cahirmoyle at Ardagh was decidedly humdrum, they had their own much-loved piece of coastline at Foynes and Foynes Island, and for summer recreation they decamped to Keatings Hotel at Derrynane (now Bridies), a modest place which set the mood of the place where young Conor OBrien (you can find his signature in the Visitors Book) started to learn to sail with the 27ft open ketch-rigged clinker-built whaler Mary Brigid.

First command Conor OBriens sailing was self taught with the 27ft whaler Mary Brigid along the coast from Derrynane

In time, OBrien would mark the establishment of the new Irish Free State with the voyage round the world south of the great capes in his own-designed, Baltimore-built 42ft ketch Saoirse between 1923 and 1925. As Afloat.ie readers are well aware, we are very much in the midst of celebrating that momentous achievement with considerable flourishes. But while it officially began and ended at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dublin Bay on the 20th June 1923 and the 20th June 1925, as far as OBrien was concerned that was purely for the convenience of publicity purposes. He felt on the contrary that all his voyages really began and ended when he sailed from or returned to his mooring off Foynes Island, where he made his last home and died in 1952 at the age of 72.

Conor OBrien in his prime around 1930, as sketched by his new wife Kitty Clausen

Saoirse re-born at Oldcourt on the River Ilen, June 2023 Photo: W M Nixon

Thered been another Limerick area gesture to the new state when the new boats of the 1922-established Shannon One Design Class at Lough Derg YC at Dromineer were transported by various railway links to what nearly all the natives still thought of as Kingstown, as it had been selected as the sailing venue for the 1924 Tailteann Games. The Dublin Bay sailors were muted in their enthusiasm, but the SOD sailors, having made their journey, went at it with gusto for all that Dublin Bay was in a brisk mood.

Their boats were supposedly only una-rigged lake boats. Yet the long, slim and beautifully but lightly-built Shannons wiggled their way in style over the salty waves, and came home with two Gold Medals while the supposedly rugged local Water Wags reputedly had none.

Shannon One Designs as dedicated lake boats at Dromineer on Lough Derg, Yet in 1924 they proved to be able sea boats by winning two Gold Medals at the sailing events of the Tailteann Games in Dublin Bay.

Despite these displays of enthusiasm, the 1930s and 40s became a relatively fallow period for Limerick and Shannon sailing, even though some astute lake sailors had used the opportunity of the Olympic Games in Belgium in 1920 to secure some superbly-built racing keelboats at knockdown prices. And some amateur sailors such as Limerick merchant David Tidmarsh and later fellow Limerick-man Roger Bourke kept the flag flying to provide an Irish Cruising Club presence in the estuary. Then around 1960 the rocketing rise of kit-built dinghy racing saw Killaloe Sailing Club at the south end of Lough Derg becoming a vibrant Enterprise centre, with annual major events there showing that local talents such as Frank Larkin could match it and more with the national stars.

As the series production of fibreglass boats was becoming an international norm, Limericks factory tradition inevitably became involved, and Gerry Nash set up Fastnet Marine in the city to build the notably successful Shipman 28. Primarily this boat was for the export market, but so many were produced that there isnt a sailing port in Ireland that even today still has a significant presence of Shipman 28s.

Shipman 28s may be racing here in Dublin Bay, but they were all built in Limerick

But the main impact on the area came from that State Within A State, Shannon Development, whose quietly-expanded remit for the promotion of prosperity extended all the way from the sea at Kerry Head far upriver to Birr in County Offaly. Its success stemmed from a dedicated and very hard-working team, and when they decided that an integral part of the regions continuing progress would be the re-establishment of Kilrush as a significant sailing centre, they didnt mess about.

They made their group financial controller, sailing enthusiast Brendan Travers, the Project Manager for the massive task of transforming Kilrush into a permanently floating marina, with a mighty barrage and a hefty sea lock. It was indeed a mega-project by the West Coast standards of the day, and inevitably, it over-ran in every direction. But now Kilrush is transformed, even unto the revival of the old Royal Western YC, of which the Glynn family of Kilrush had kept many original documents and artefacts.

Kilrush as it was in the 1890s, with the Shannon Estuarys large tidal range a key factor in port life.

.and Kilrush as it is now, with the sea lock and marina providing peace of mind and space for a good boatyard

Not least of Kilrushs achievements is that it has attracted the international boat-building talent of Steve Morris. From New Zealand, he was enticed to Ireland and Kilrush, in particular by his new Irish wife, who wished to live near her mother.

A substantial doctorate could be written about the longterm role of the Irish mother in enticing international skill to specialist industries in this city, particularly when theyre located in places others might think of as remote. Kilrush is no longer remote in classic yacht and general boat maintenance terms. In Ireland, it is now Classic Boatbuilding Central, with Steve and his team working on an extraordinary variety of jobs, everything from the re-birth of the Dublin Bay 21 Class for Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra, to a minor but potentially tricky job of sorting out some damage on a relatively new Howth 17, which recently provided a useful excuse for four leading Howth 17 sailors to spend a day trailing the boat to Kilrush so that they could worship at this shrine of master craftsmanship.

The artist in his studio Steve Morris last week in Kilrush, inspecting the restored hull of the Dublin Bay 21 Oola. Photo: Ian Malcolm

The restored stem on Oola the line of the bow on the Dublin Bay 21 was one of renowned designer Alfred Mylnes very best. Photo: Ian Malcolm

Worshipping at the shrine Howth 17 sailors Marc FitzGibbon, Donal Gallagher and Alan Markey savouring the quality of the Kilrush craftsmanship on the DB21 Oola. Photo: Ian Malcolm

Meanwhile, other aspects of the Limerick sailing skills and maritime devotion have continued to manifest themselves. Despite the Covid hiatus, Killaloe Sailing Club have built themselves a fine new clubhouse, while the dinghy sailing interests of the area have also been able to express themselves through the lake-based Cullaun Sailing Club in the heart of County Clare.

Foynes Yacht Club prospers such that it was able to host the 2023 National Championship of Champions sailed in their own fleet of Mermaids, and although Gary Mac Mahon has stood back from the day-to-day running of the Ilen through transferring the superbly restored ship to the Sailing-Into-Wellness organisation, the detailed research he did on Conor OBriens Saoirse has enabled her to be re-built with authenticity in Olcourt near Baltimore by Liam Hegarty as a stylish vessel for West Cork devotee Fred Kinmonth.

Saoirse departs from Dunleary on her great pioneering voyage on June 20th 1923

While all this was working towards fulfilment, before the century turned, Limerick man Pat Lawless set off solo round the world in an International Folkboat - a very pretty little craft, but she wouldnt have been everyones choice for the task he had in mind. So no-one was surprised that, when he eventually returned, it was in a hefty 32ft Seadog ketch. And he has left his two sons Pat Jnr and Peter, with the ambition of being the first Irish sailor to sail solo round the world non-stop, for thats what Limericks Lawless sailing family do.

Thus in national and international sailing terms, Limerick and the Shannon Estuary and the rivers nearby lakes are pace-setters in Irish and global sailing. In fact, every brief examination reveals further layers of achievement and seagoing activity. Theres no doubting theres much more to the Shannonside city than Terry Wogan, Richard Harris, Frank God Help Us McCourt, and Munster Rugby. Limerick is a gutsy town. And though the Earldom of Dunraven and the Knighthood of Glin are now extinct, their spirit is more alive than ever.

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Shannon Estuary & Limerick Have Combined Over Centuries As ... - Afloat